There’s basically no proper infantry in War Thunder at all. This vehicle is clearly tailor-made for Enlisted. No one knows exactly when it’ll arrive though. Nice post by the way. I’m still busy digging up reference materials. I checked the poll, and I’m glad most people agree this 45mm-armed KV should stay at BR 3 even with its thicker armour.
Putting firepower aside, its anti-air machine gun, extra applique armour and flamethrower all look really cool. I’m just happy Gaijin is adding a new WWII vehicle. I’ve finished grinding all Soviet ground vehicles in War Thunder, and I never play anything above BR 5.7 anymore. Just relax and mess around with the entire T-34 lineup casually.
This vehicle would probably sit around BR 3.7 in WT. LOL some people said if it were at BR 3.3, it’d basically be a baby BMPT.
Looking at it, we could also talk about what German tanks could be introduced to counter it: Flamethrower variants of the Panzer III, Panzer IV (though I don’t think that one existed), Flamethrower StuG III, flamethrower Hetzer, captured French Char B1 flamethrower version, and so on. Man, that all sounds really cool.
Aside from its 45mm cannon with likely under 70mm penetration, its armour seems comparable to the ZIS-5. German and Japanese tanks at BR 3 can handle it fine anyway—the 45mm caliber doesn’t hit that hard, plus they have Panzerfausts to rely on.
Against this tank, Japan really needs a better rocket launcher at BR 3 with at least 100–120mm penetration. Infantry anti-tank options also need expanding, not just limited to TNT and mines. Larger, two-handed carried explosive satchels should be added too. We also have to keep the BR 2 matchmaking environment in mind.
Still, this tank is definitely locked into BR 3. If it got pushed to BR 4, it’d be up against everyone with Panzerfausts, Tiger I and Panther tanks. At that point you’d be better off just sniping from the back in an IS-1 instead.
If DF releases it as an event vehicle, it’ll definitely be BR 3. It might end up like the gap between the XA-38 and Il-8: the Soviet version gets bumped straight to BR 4.